MONTPELIER — Members of the Vermont State Employees’ Association have elected a union official as the association’s president for a two-year term, the union announced Wednesday.

Shelley Martin is a 13-year veteran of state government who works for the Department of Environmental Conservation in Montpelier and has served FOR four years as first vice president of the VSEA.

She replaces John Reese, who did not seek another term as VSEA president.

Martin previously had served in several other roles with the union, including on its legislative, member recruitment, special events and personnel committees.

She said her goals include enhancing empowerment of workers at their state worksites and organizing Vermont workers who don’t currently have a union but would like to.

She moves into the top job following a bumpy year for the union. Its trustees fired the union’s executive director, Mark Mitchell, in June, but changed course days later, instead placing Mitchell on administrative leave pending an investigation. Mitchell was reinstated in July, and two top lawyers with the union resigned.

“VSEA is experiencing a lot of positive and —in my opinion— long-overdue changes right now,” Martin said in a statement released by the union.

“Like a majority of VSEA leaders, I believe that the times we live in dictate that our union begins to place a greater emphasis on empowering VSEA members at their worksites and growing our union by organizing more and more Vermont workers who currently don’t have a union but would like one.”